Field of Invention
The present invention generally relates to the computer technology, and in particular, to a computer and a method for sharing an input device thereof.
Description of Prior Art
In general, an embedded system means a non-PC system which is a device or an equipment having functions of a computer while not being referred to as a computer. It is an application-centered dedicated system whose software and/or hardware can be tailored to adapt to strict overall requirements of application systems on functionality, reliability, cost, volume, and power consumption. In other words, in a manner similar to the operation of BIOS in a PC, an embedded system integrates its application software with hardware to achieve features, such as small size of software codes, high automation level and fast response, and thus is particularly suitable for architectures with real-time and multi-task demands. An embedded system is a stand-alone “device” composed mainly of an embedded processor, associated supporting hardware, an embedded operating system, and application software systems.
Embedded systems are involved in almost all electrical devices in our daily life, such as handheld personal digital assistants (PDAs), mobile computing devices, TV set-top boxes, internetworking mobile phones, digital TVs, multimedia devices, vehicles, microwave ovens, digital cameras, home automation systems, elevators, air conditioners, safety systems, vending machines, cellular phones, consumer electronics, industrial automation instruments, medical equipments, and the like.
The hardware portion of an embedded system comprises a processor/micro processor, a memory and peripherals, as well as I/O ports and a graphical controller and the like. An embedded system differs from a common computer processing system in that it does not have a mass storage medium like a hard drive, and generally uses an EPROM or a flash memory as the storage medium instead. Its software portion comprises embedded operating system software (which requires real-time and multi-task operations) and application programming. The application programming controls the operation and behavior of the system, while the embedded operating system controls the interaction between the application programming and the hardware.
In some applications, it is desired to combine an embedded system and a notebook computer together. In this case, the software and/or hardware of the embedded system remain independent of the notebook computer due to the stand-alone characteristic of the embedded system itself. However, for an embedded system which requires input/output devices for its own, its separate devices such as keyboard and mouse may have a serious impact on the size, weight and appearance when being combined with the notebook computer. Therefore, user experience will be greatly deteriorated if the original input devices of the notebook computer cannot be shared by the embedded subsystem.